Person to Know: the Designer Bringing Glam-Rock Back to Men’s Wear

Though Ed Lee has been applauded for his unconventional men’s wear, he insists that there are no big concepts behind his designs. Instead, the recent Central Saint Martin’s graduate cites a straightforward passion for color, texture and shape — as well as an enthusiasm for fashion history and vintage clothes, of which he’s become an “accidental collector.” The result is a men’s wear brand that marries louche, Bowie-esque glamour and decadently ornate textiles with androgynous, voluminous silhouettes.

Born in Hong Kong, Lee moved to the U.K. at 16 and enrolled at a Buckinghamshire boarding school, a decision that he considers pivotal to his creative development. “When I came to the U.K., it was the first time that I felt as though there were so many things around me and I had the time to explore them,” he says. “I was studying physics, economics and business, but in my spare time I’d spend so much time in the art department, drawing and learning about different artists.”

With the support of his initially hesitant parents, Lee pursued the prestigious B.A. men’s wear course at Central Saint Martins, which enabled him to flourish creatively. (He was in good company, too: the designer Grace Wales Bonner was a classmate.) Soon, he landed an internship in the haute couture atelier of Maison Martin Margiela on his placement year in college. “I was speechless when I got there — I still don’t know how to describe it,” he says of the experience. “It was all about creating new materials from unexpected objects. I would never have thought that making a jacket out of pencils or balloons could end up being so beautiful, and that vintage clothes could be used to create something so modern.” Soon after, Lee started to assist Christelle Kocher, a senior designer at Bottega Veneta and creative director at Maison Lemarié, who now designs the brand Koché, for which Lee continues to freelance.

Back at Central Saint Martins, Lee applied what he learned in Paris to his graduate collection. He began by deconstructing vintage clothes and textiles (à la Margiela) and delving into decades of fashion history and couture techniques for inspiration (à la Kocher). The result was a collection of sinuous silk shirts, boxy snakeskin tailoring and sculptural tops, as well as unexpected grungy slip dresses and blouses worn over dark velvet sweaters and underneath sweeping mock-croc and leather coats. Lee wasn’t preparing to take it any further than a job interview — which all changed when the singer Harry Styles came knocking. “I hadn’t even made up my mind as to whether I’d start my own line, but the fact that he wanted to order some custom shirts, and gave me the freedom to do what I thought would be best for him, really boosted my confidence,” Lee says.

From there, he began collecting vintage clothes and planning for the upcoming season while freelancing for fashion brands and apparel manufacturers to support his line. For his fall/winter 2016 collection, his second since graduating, Lee lists Elizabeth Peyton, Franz Kline and Paul Poiret as inspirations. “I wanted to take the essence of all of this richness and combine it with a modern silhouette,” he says, before adding that his aim was to offer some more traditional men’s wear shapes than he has done previously. “I don’t just want to reproduce 1920s and 1970s looks — that would be really meaningless. You have all of these delicate details but you need some rawness in it to balance it out. A really beautiful satin needs an edge, so I destroyed things a little bit but kept the rich detailing.”

The collection marks a newfound commercialism for Lee, who says that he tried to make the production more sustainable by choosing ready-made fabrics, printing fabric and generally using less repurposed vintage clothes and textiles. When it came to picking a factory, Lee decided on Hong Kong, where his mother is involved in the city’s textile industry and can help oversee production.

Though Lee plans to build his business slowly, it won’t be long before he becomes a fixture on the burgeoning London men’s wear scene. “I would love to do a show at London Collections: Men,” he says, referencing the men’s wear shows which will be held there in mid-June. “I may be traveling all over the world, but I see London as my base. This is where my label should be. In a way, what I do is all about London.”

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